Juicy Instant Pot Chicken Breast from fresh or frozen. 25 minutes from start to finish, simple ingredients and no saute. Cooking chicken breast in the Instant Pot is an essential recipe that is perfect for beginners and novices alike. Use in a variety of meals and recipes that call for cooked chicken.
This pressure cooker chicken breast is my go-to on a busy weeknight or weekend (who am I kidding?!). Often it becomes shredded chicken making it perfect for salad, tacos and stir fries. Just like Instant Pot whole chicken this is any mom’s best friend.
Table of contents
- Why This Instant Pot Chicken Breast Works?
- Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Chicken Breast
- How to Cook Fresh Chicken Breast in Instant Pot
- How to Cook Frozen Chicken Breast in Instant Pot
- Tips for Instant Pot Chicken Success
- Serving Recommendations for Cooked Chicken Breast
- FAQs
- Making This Recipe in Advance
- More Healthy Instant Pot Chicken Breast Recipes
Why This Instant Pot Chicken Breast Works?
This Instant Pot chicken breast recipe is easy, simple and forgiving. Don’t you always have a pack of chicken breasts in your freezer?! Now you can make chicken breast in Instant Pot from fresh or frozen in 30 minutes.
I just love Instant Pot! It makes the best Instant Pot rice and beans with no soaking, lasagna with no need for a springform pan, the most tender Instant Pot beef stew with no need to saute, easy Instant Pot steamed vegetables and even cobbler!
If you are new to pressure cooking, check out my Instant Pot guide. It explains what happens, why and how to avoid failures and how to clean your Instant Pot after cooking in it. Another great place to start learning how to cook the basics in your new appliance, is my best of Instant Pot beginner recipes. If you don’t have an Instant Pot yet but are thinking about buying one, I explain which Instant Pot to buy in my humble opinion and how it is different than a slow cooker.
Also if you are not a blessed electric pressure cooker owner just yet, check out my baked chicken breast recipe or air fryer chicken breast. Same easy and simple. Also this honey garlic chicken would be good pan fried – in case you don’t have an oven.
Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Chicken Breast
You really need only chicken breasts and water. Everything else is up to your taste and what meal idea you are planning to use with your cooked Instant Pot chicken breast recipe.
If you are adding cooked chicken breast to salads, quesadillas and tostadas, I would not worry about seasonings much.
If you are planning to eat cooked chicken breast alongside quinoa or brown rice and salad (meal prep style), I would pay attention to spices.
- Chicken breasts – You can use fresh or frozen.
- Salt and pepper – Simple seasonings so your chicken is a ‘blank slate’ for recipes.
- Garlic powder – If you wish, but not required.
- Dried herbs – If you like, really it will depend on how you plan to use the chicken once it is ready.
Use one of these 5 chicken marinades to really ramp up the flavor of the chicken breast.
How to Cook Fresh Chicken Breast in Instant Pot
- Add 1 cup water and place trivet on top.
- Lay chicken breasts in a single layer, sprinkle with spices and rub onto each other.
- Press Pressure Cook on High or Manual for 10 minutes – under 2″ thickness and 15 minutes – over 2″ thick breasts.
- Do Natural Release for 5 minutes and then turn pressure valve to Venting.
How to Cook Frozen Chicken Breast in Instant Pot
Cook frozen chicken breasts just like fresh but:
- For 15 minutes.
- Make sure each breast is separated.
If you add a blob of frozen chicken breasts, you will end up with raw meat inside and overcooked chicken outside.
When you bring fresh chicken from the store, line each breast with small piece of parchment paper before adding to a bag and freezing. Thaw for 5 minutes or run under cold water for easy parchment paper removal.
Check out my Instant Pot frozen chicken breast recipe for detailed info.
Tips for Instant Pot Chicken Success
What Size of Instant Pot Can I Use?
Any – 3 quart, 5 quart, 6 quart or 8 quart.
Same recipe. Same cooking time. Same water amount.
Just make sure chicken breasts fit in a single layer. If your Instant Pot is small and you want to cook large amount of breasts, do so in a few batches. Piling up chicken in a few layers will result in undercooked chicken.
Also note that larger pressure cooker (like mine – 8 quart) take longer to come to pressure – about 8-10 minutes.
Do I Have to Saute Breasts Before Cooking?
I just had to comment. Many recipes online ask you to saute chicken breast before pressure cooking in an effort “to lock in most of juices”. I can assure you I have cooked chicken breast in Instant Pot over 20 times and it comes out juicy if you follow my recipe.
Can I Cook Breasts with Bones?
Yes. Even with skin on, if you wish. Same amount of time.
Does Size of Breast Matter?
6 oz or 10 oz – doesn’t matter. 10 minutes or 15 minutes of pressure cooking is enough time to cook standard American supermarket chicken breasts.
Can I Cook Just One Breast?
Yes, you can. You can cook as many instapot chicken breasts as you need or as little as long as they fit into a single layer. Same cooking time.
Serving Recommendations for Cooked Chicken Breast
There are so many ways to answer the question on what to do with cooked chicken breast! Here are a few ways to turn your Instant Pot chicken breast recipe into a meal:
- Shredded: Shred meat with 2 forks, refrigerate and use to make chicken salad or white chicken chili. Or skip sauteing and use instead of ground turkey to make pasta bake.
- Diced: Cube to add protein to vegetarian pasta dish, easy spaghetti recipe or even vegetable soup or borscht. Why not?!
- Low carb meal: Make one of healthy zucchini recipes and enjoy quick dinner entire family will love.
- Meal prep: Refrigerate whole or cubed and use throughout the week for lunches – sub out your sandwich deli meat for chicken or use in Cobb salad.
- Freeze for later. When ready to eat, thaw on the counter for a few hours or in the fridge overnight.
Alternately, browse 65 chicken recipes perfect for putting your Instant Pot chicken to good use!
Major tip alert! Save that broth on the bottom of the pot for making chicken soup or any soup. It is basically free chicken broth.
FAQs
Cooking times will vary depending on the size and if your chicken is fresh or frozen. Here are some general guidelines – for fresh breasts under 2″ thickness cook on high for 10 minutes. For fresh breasts over 2″ thick or if your chicken breast is frozen, cook for 15 minutes.
Using my cooking guidelines for both size of breast and fresh/frozen, you should end up with perfectly cooked chicken breast in the Instant Pot. If it is rubbery, this could be a sign of undercooked meat. Check the internal temperature which should be 165F degrees for chicken breast.
Because the Instant Pot steam provides a moist environment for your chicken breast, this is difficult to do, but nonetheless no one likes dry chicken. If you are worried about this, be sure to follow this recipe to a ‘T’ and measure your chicken breast thickness at its widest point so you know exactly how long to cook chicken breast in Instant Pot.
Yes! Be sure to see our Instant Pot chicken thighs recipe for exact cooking method.
Making This Recipe in Advance
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freeze: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container or resealable freezer bags for up to 3 months. Thaw in fridge or on a counter.
More Healthy Instant Pot Chicken Breast Recipes
Did you know we have entire Youtube channel dedicated to healthy Instant Pot recipes and tips? My goal is to help you become confident with your Instant Pot by demonstrating each delicious foolproof recipe in step-by-step videos.
Make sure to subscribe and hit the Bell icon not to miss new videos.
- Instant Pot chicken and rice that we make every month!
- Instant Pot chicken and potatoes everyone will love, trust me!
- Instant Pot white chicken chili is creamy and made healthier.
- Instant Pot frozen chicken – rotisserie style whole chicken.
- 10 healthy freezer meals you can cook from frozen in your pressure cooker.
- And check out over 45 other Instant Pot recipes.
Instant Pot Chicken Breast {Fresh or Frozen}
Ingredients
- 3 lbs boneless chicken breasts fresh or frozen*
- 1 cup water
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- To the Instant Pot, add water and place trivet inside.
- Lay chicken breasts in a single layer (if using frozen make sure they are separated) and sprinkle with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Toss to coat evenly with tongs or hands.
- Close the lid, set pressure vent to Sealing and press Pressure Cook on High for 10 minutes (under 2″ thickness) for fresh or 15 minutes for fresh (over 2″ thick) and frozen chicken breasts.
- Display will say ON, Instant Pot will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure, you will see a bit of steam coming out from a valve, then float valve will rise and countdown will begin.
- After 10-15 minutes your chicken is ready, Instant Pot will beep and display will say OFF. Wait 5 minutes and do Quick Release by turning sealing valve to Venting position.
- Open the lid and your chicken breasts are ready for meal prep, casseroles, salads etc. Shred or cube, and save the stock at the bottom for soup.
- Shred or cube, and save the stock at the bottom for soup.
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freeze: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container or resealable freezer bags for up to 3 months. Thaw in a fridge or on a counter.
Video
Notes
- *If using frozen chicken breasts make sure they are separated. Think about it before freezing a whole tray, separate them with parchment paper.
- Feel free to use chicken broth instead of water.
Nutrition
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My name is Olena Osipov. I'm a mom to 2 boys, a wife to Alex and we reside on magical Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This is our healthy family recipes blog. Originally from Ukraine, I grew up on real food. As an adult, I struggled with diets for years because none worked long-term. Now for over 10 years, I cook easy healthy meals for my family. I can help you with “What’s for dinner?” too.